It has been reported that Orascom Telecom has extended its North Korean mobile network to include “several” additional cities, although Korea Times suggested that regions near the border with South Korea have been excluded, in case customers roam onto “uncensored” networks from the neighbouring country. It was separately suggested that blocking equipment had been deployed in the north of North Korea, in order to prevent subscribers from accessing Chinese operators. While the network is being extended, it was noted that the cost of mobile services is precluding the majority of citizens from buying mobile phones.

In its results announcement last week, Orascom said that the North Korean unit, koryolink, had more than 184,000 customers as of end-June 2010, up from almost 48,000 the year before. For the first half of the year, EBITDA was US$18.7 million, up from US$2.8 million a year earlier, on revenue of US$23.2 million, up 86 percent year-on-year.  It said that its network covers twelve main cities and 22 major road and rail routes, giving it 60 percent population coverage.  It addressed the cost issue, stating that “koryolink has succeeded in penetrating medium to medium-high value segments, specifically within the teens and young adults segments.” koryolink is a joint venture of Orascom (75 percent) and the state-owned Korea Posts and Telecommunications Corp (25 percent).